Water and Hard Drives Don't Mix


The fact that water and hard drives don't mix should be self-evident to anyone who's ever used electricity, but I once witnessed first hand the outcome of such an ill-advised marriage.

We were six weeks into a Broadway cast album mix (no, it shouldn't have taken that long, but that's a whole other story.) We were a few days from finishing (in theory) when a clogged storm drain flooded the studio with six inches of water. Of course, the computer containing all of the automation from the mixes was on the ground, and was now doing its best impression of Jacques Cousteau.

With horrifying visions of having to repeat the previous six weeks (to which prolonged dental surgery would have been preferable) we sent the hard drive off to be dissected in a clean room in a mysterious black ops facility somewhere in California. Funny how in certain situations money becomes no object.

In any case, it all turned out fine in the end. The microchip magicians burned some incense, waved their wands, recovered all of our data, and we finished the gig. I guess the moral of the story is "Don't place computer equipment on the floor of flood-prone areas unless you have nothing to lose or money to burn." (Or some kind of sick need to repeat your work.)

Words to the wise.

-Dave Hab

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